" In light of Ignatius' 'Two Standards' and 'The Mystries Done From The Garden To The House Of Annas', at any moment we can be Judas or Peter, a Christian life can be a fine line."

Friday, June 6, 2014

The Jesuit Elephant

It seems that elephants roamed the Philippines not just in
prehistoric times but as late as the 17th century, as Jesuit Ignacio Francisco Alcina in his multivolume “Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas” (1668) as a “torre de carne” (tower of flesh)
that some Christian saints referred to as “Goliath” because of the
size. (The iconic Japanese monster Godzilla may not look like it, but
its name when read in Japanese sounds like “gorilla.”) Alcina noted
that the Visayan word for elephant was “gadya,” and that the ivory
(“garing” in Tagalog, hence one of the attributes of the Virgin Mary,
“Tower of Ivory,” is “Torre ng Garing”) was used for bracelets, ear
pendants, daggers and sword hilts, and even jewelry boxes.

described by the

According to Alcina, elephants were not to be found in the
Visayas but in Jolo. These were smaller than elephants from Cambodia and
India, and were prized for their: ivory tusks that were made into
religious images of the Santo Niño, the Virgin Mary, and other saints;
bones, similar to ivory, that were fashioned into jewelry; hide that was
made into breastplates, helmets, and armor that protected the wearer
from sword and lance but not from an arquebus or musket; and, last but
not least, meat that was eaten, too!

Alcina wrote: “The natives of that island (Jolo) eat the flesh.
One of our fathers who stayed there told me that he had eaten the meat
and that it was tougher than beef and did not taste as good.” Elephants were said to be intelligent, hardworking, and fierce
when provoked. They were modest, too. When told that elephants were
never seen mating, that they concealed themselves when they mated,
Alcina remarked: “A lesson in modesty for men who sometimes and even
frequently lack the modesty which these brute animals observe so well.”

What
I found fascinating, though, was the fact that Alcina saw elephants in
Manila where they were received as gifts from Cambodia and neighboring
countries. Alonso Fajardo, governor-general from 1618 to 1624, gave the
Jesuits a tamed elephant that served them many years hauling logs, beams
and posts during the construction of the Jesuit residence in the city.

Alcina talked fondly about their pet elephant and of its sad end:

“I have heard unusual and very strange stories related about it… I
shall tell only one, which seems to have a connection with the friends
of Bacchus (Greek god of grape growing and wine) of whom there are many
here. It seems that if they were not watchful, he went to the wine
cellar or store room, either at the Colegio or that of the Procurator
General, sniffed out the casks which contained wine, very easily
uncovered them with his trunk and siphoned out one entire cask at one
time; thus showing his joy with a thousand gambols. If, perchance, he
took in too much he would be intoxicated and cause some violence.
However he was able to get out into the countryside until it passed;
afterwards he returned to the house very docile.

“When he felt hungry, they say, he used to go among the houses of
the natives; they knew what he wanted and gave him either rice or
various fruits to eat. In this manner he went to many dwellings, as
though asking alms, until he was satisfied. He approached the doors of
the houses of those who would not give him anything and struck the posts
and tore them off and flattened the houses, thus they were careful to
give him something immediately so that he would not harm them. This
happened when days passed without his returning to our house where what
was needed was given him.

“He lived for years until a Brother of ours, angered by some
mischief or other, whether stealing food or drink, who was in a house in
the field where the elephant was taken to haul logs, which were newly
cut, fastened the beast with strong ropes to a large tree and left him
there to die of hunger. Since this animal had cost him little, he was
little concerned about it perishing.”

Quite a sad end for the pet elephant in the 17th-century Jesuit
house in Manila whose name is lost to history. I hope that inhumane
Jesuit brother was castigated in life and in the hereafter for his
cruelty.

About Me

I am not a Jesuit, nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit, 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life, resulted in me, trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki, S.J.. I am the father of three small children and an infant, I am married to a great wife.